Goal-oriented hobbies like signing up for a marathon or reading a certain number of books in a year can provide accountability to do things outside of work. But striving for a goal still imposes a frame of improvement, which implies work in a fundamental sense. This isn’t to say these types of hobbies are bad. But I can’t help thinking that, through all of our quantified ambition, we lose sight of the wisdom we all knew as children: the joy of play.
